De Villepin to go on trial over alleged plot to smear Sarkozy

The former French prime minister Dominique de Villepin has been ordered to stand trial for his role in an alleged plot to smear Nicolas Sarkozy.

The scandal, known as the "Clearstream affair", is a tangled web of alleged spying and political manoeuvres at the heart of the French government. It dates back to 2004, when De Villepin and Sarkozy were both ministers under Jacques Chirac and vying to succeed him as president.

De Villepin has consistently denied all wrongdoing. But a source close to the case said he has been charged with "complicity in libel".

His trial, along with that of four others, is expected to take place next year and promises to lay bare the poisonous atmosphere and rivalries of the final years of the Chirac era. De Villepin could face up to five years in prison if convicted.

The affair began in summer 2004, when an anonymous source wrote to a judge accusing a string of politicians and businessmen of holding secret bank accounts for laundering bribes at the Luxembourg bank Clearstream. On the list was Sarkozy, the then finance minister. But the accusations were false and the accounts did not exist.

Sarkozy complained that the affair was used to discredit him in the run-up to the presidential race. A judicial inquiry has since examined whether senior members of the government prolonged the bogus corruption scandal, using intelligence officials in a deliberate plot to smear Sarkozy.

Sarkozy became a plaintiff in the Clearstream case in 2006, asking magistrates to find those behind the scandal.

In a statement issued late on Tuesday, De Villepin complained he was a victim of legal bias. "Nothing justifies this decision to go to trial," he said. He added that throughout the investigation "the reality of the facts and of the law has been twisted in favour of a single plaintiff" who happened to be the French president.

The MP Jean-Pierre Grand, close to De Villepin, told Agence France Presse that he was being treated like a "Soviet dissident" and was the victim of harassment. The centrist François Bayrou said the case smacked of score-settling.

The Elysée declined to comment.

De Villepin, who served as foreign minister and interior minister, was a protégé and righthand man of Chirac. He was said to have detested the ambitious Sarkozy when they were in government together.

Among the other four figures who will stand trial is Jean-Louis Gergorin, a former senior executive of the European aircraft maker EADS, who had close ties to the intelligence services. He was revealed to be the informant who handed over the original list of names and fake bank accounts to a judge, setting off the scandal.

Examining magistrates believe De Villepin may have prompted Gergorin to hand over the documents. The state prosecutor has said that at the very least he did not prevent Gergorin from acting, despite doubting the authenticity of the files.